The vendor has given us until July 7th to pay for this, which means the check will need to be mailed around the end of this month. And it is expensive. And to compound the problem, we are seeing increasing expenses related to the upcoming ROSE show right at this time.
Because of these things, I have been aggressive with our sales, and will continue to be aggressive for another week or two. But this won’t be the case once everything is covered, so take advantage of it while you can.
So now you can be making more Realborns? Also, are you saying we won’t be seeing the sales like we have been seeing? I was thinking that was going to be a continuing thing as your inventory had picked up. Anyway, I do appreciate any sales.
To be blunt, we need the money right now (to pay for ROSE and to pay for the newest 3D Printer). Once there are sufficient funds to cover those things, the sales will taper way down. But they will never go completely away.
This is our 5th 3D printer (in our history). Time has been flying, because we have been experimenting with this technology since around 2009 (about 10 years), and it doesn’t seem that long to me. We’ve also been through 7 different 3D scanners during that time (and tested many more).
The technology in 2009 wasn’t good enough. I remember working with a company in Atlanta back then that claimed they had a scanner setup that would work for us. It was about $160,000 to buy. I told them we would fly a baby out to them and they could scan a baby for us and give us the data. If the data was good enough, we would buy their scanner.
We flew my daughter Averie, and her baby Kenzie, and had Kenzie scanned. The data was too low of resolution, and didn’t work for us.
Our first “Realborn” release was with early technology, but newer than 2009 technology (I think around 2014 or so). We released our first “Realborn” early just so that we could prove that it was being used in Commerce (for Trademark purposes, and also Patent purposes). We quickly discontinued that first release, and usually never mention it. We hoped it will be forgotten, because it wasn’t up to our standards. Does anybody know which kit I am talking about? It was discontinued many years ago.
The quality Realborns didn’t become a reality until around 2015 or so. And we’ve gotten better since then.
Over our history, we’ve spent way over a million dollars pursuing this technology. There’s a lot more involved to do it than most people can even guess.
And yes, it still takes an artist. Or two. Or three.
Well, I can definitely understand that from a business perspective. Yes, I do know the scanners are unreal in pricing. I also know we love the Realborns, and we are happy that you and the company have done so much to help us in this regard. No one else has RealBorns and probably never will as you have the market. I am proud of what BB has done. I was really trying to clarify in my mind that what I understood you to be saying was what I thought it was. I like to be on the right page. Anyway, thank you so much for your reply. I do appreciate BB.
Understood. I was just trying to give some more background information. This entire journey has been quite an experience for all of us here at Bountiful Baby.
Was Presley that first release you’re talking about? It’s so cool how fast technology changes, but you’re right, it can take a lot of resources to adapt!
No. Presley Asleep was our first quality Realborn release. Presley was the son of an employee who no longer works for us.
There was another kit before Presley that had the “Realborn” moniker. It was the first that we called a “Realborn”, and it’s long gone now.
At the time of Presley’s release, I think there was a huge amount of curiosity built up in the industry about our 3D technology, because Presley rapidly sold out. And because we rapidly discontinued the kit that preceded Presley, Presley is widely thought of as the first Realborn.
If my memory isn’t messing up, Presley was what we called a “Time Limited Release”-- we publicly said we would go at least 3 years before creating more.
Hmmm, that means the 3 years are up now. Maybe we should look at a re-release of Presley Asleep?
Incidentally, most of our 3D scans have been of babies that we have had the best access to (that shouldn’t surprise anybody). And those were babies of employees, relatives of employees, and Denise and my grandbabies. There have been a few that weren’t in those categories, but very few.
We also have about two dozen scanned babies in the queue awaiting processing (because the processing is time consuming and not easy). We are trying to get to them.
Thanks BB for being such an AWESOME company and pursuing the best technology!!! Now I’m really curious who that first Realborn was! I’m tagging @jlesser because she knows a lot of Reborn facts
The first one was “Eliza” (Denise’s and my daughter). We currently have an “Eliza” kit that was sculpted by Donna RuBert. But there was an “Eliza” that briefly preceded that one.
We scanned our baby Eliza with a scanner we bought from some Russians. The scanner had not yet gotten FCC approval, so they could not sell us one. But they could “loan” us one for a fee. We signed a “loaner” contract, but we also knew they would never ask for it back. When we got our “loaner”, we met them (the Russians) in a hotel room in Seattle. It was a rather surreal meeting.
That scanner is now on the market and has full FCC approval, but I probably shouldn’t name them because of our early access. I don’t want to embarrass anybody. It’s actually an impressive and very respectable scanner for the price (and being sold by at least one major US company in the 3D industry). It was the best we had experienced up to that time.
But it wasn’t good enough. The facial details were severely lacking, and we totally failed to get anything even close to good enough for the limbs. So for that first release, Denise sculpted the limbs, and touched up the details on the face.
We called it a “Realborn”, and began the trademark registration, showing the term as currently being used in commerce (which sped up the trademark process).
And then we dropped the kit as soon as possible and replaced it with Donna’s sculpt. I think it was about 1 1/2 years before Presley Asleep’s release.
All this is so exciting! I love technology – as long as it does what it is supposed to do!!! I am thankful you have continued to search for the best scanners/printers to make the dolls so lifelike. I was doing my first RealBorn and it just felt so different to me. I couldn’t help but think about the little legs and arms, etc., and think – this was made from a real baby. I know I sound weird – but that’s OK! Most reborners get it. LOLOL Anyway, it was a whole new experience.
Nevin, I am all about the 3D (scanning and printing) …I am going to show up on your door step to work for you one of these days. I am drooling over that crate.
Until then I will go over and help you pay for it…a little hoarding never hurt anyone.
I would so love for Presley asleep to be re-released. That is one pretty baby! I remember the Eliza newborn kit. Is that the one you are talking about, Nevin? Can’t wait to see you and Denise again this year at ROSE!
